Head/Cab and Ohms

OK, I have a Mesa Boogie Dual Caliber 5 (DC-5), it has two 4 ohm outputs and one 8 ohm output. I then have two 2x12 cabs, one is a 4 ohm cab and the other is an 8 ohm cab, what is the best way to go about hooking the cabs to my head?

I have been told I should re-wire the 4 ohm cab to "inseries" and make it a 16 ohm cab and then hook the new re-wired 16 ohm cab to the 8 ohm output on the head and the 8 ohm cab to one of the 4 ohm outputs?!?!?!

Is there a way I can use what I have, not re-wire either cab and not hurt either the head or cabs?

You can't hook it up with 2 cabs with your setup main reason being that your cabs have different impedances. If you could get your 4 ohm cab to 8 ohms (which you can't because there are two 8 ohm speakers in there), then you could have plugged the two 8 ohm cabs into the 4 ohm taps which are in parallel.

You can't hook it up with 2 cabs with your setup main reason being that your cabs have different impedances. If you could get your 4 ohm cab to 8 ohms (which you can't because there are two 8 ohm speakers in there), then you could have plugged the two 8 ohm cabs into the 4 ohm taps which are in parallel.

the resulting impedance *does quick and dirty version of math in head* would be lower than your head... = bad. your OT would go first, within just a few minutes max, then your tubes. about then you'd start to see the smoke you were smelling just a few moments before. that's about when it'd erupt in a ball of flames,engulfing yourself and everyone you ever cared about, making their final moments on earth much like a living inferno of hell.

or you could just hook up the one 8ohm cab to your 8ohm jack. that would work just fine.

the resulting impedance *does quick and dirty version of math in head* would be lower than your head... = bad. your OT would go first, within just a few minutes max, then your tubes. about then you'd start to see the smoke you were smelling just a few moments before. that's about when it'd erupt in a ball of flames,engulfing yourself and everyone you ever cared about, making their final moments on earth much like a living inferno of hell.

You make it sound like the end of days.

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Aren't you just re-asking the same question that you have in your OP? It seems you got some good answers. Some rather dramatic at that.

Why don't you just sell the cab that doesn't work for you and start over?

I am going by what a Mesa rep told me over the phone (rewire the 4 ohm cab to a in series 16 ohm cab and I will be all set and just need to use the 8 ohm output on the head. That is what Mesa told me but others I talked to did not think that would work so I wanted to post the question here.

Mesas are built like brick shit-houses and can generally take a little extra resistance (as in, the cab being rated higher than the output tap).It doesn't surprise me they said it was ok, but honestly, they're a little optimistic about their product. If they were so damn sure, then they'd cover blowing up your OT in the warranty for stunts like this, but they DON'T.

I have occasionally run my mkIII at a mismatch, no harm done, but I ALWAYS try to avoid it. It does the amp NO favors, and sounds like ass and lowers power anyway.

Why not just run the one 8 ohm cab?

Or disconnect one speaker in the 4 ohm cab, giving you 8, then you can run them both through the 4 ohm taps?

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Or do what Rutch says and disconnect one of the speakers in the 4 ohm cab.

You'd be safer running the two together in the 4 ohm taps (you'd have a slight upwards mismatch)

It'd technically be safer to rewire the 4 ohm cab to 16 ohms and then use both 4 ohm outputs with an overall load impedance of a little bit over 5 ohms. Otherwise if you use one 4 ohm output and one 8 ohm output, you are using two different taps on the OT.